Federal File

Election Seasoning

It's back-to-school and back-to-Capitol-Hill time, a convergence
that had Washington lawmakers scurrying to microphones last week to
unveil a clutch of catchy-sounding education bills to capture public
attention.

Fresh from their August recess—and just two months away from
the midterm elections—members of both parties rolled out
legislative initiatives at competing press conferences.

Several Democrats, led by Rep. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania and Sen.
Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, unveiled the proposed Student Bill
of Rights Act of 2002. It would, among other provisions, compel states
to ensure that all school districts within state lines received
comparable educational services.

"Poor children in every state are still the least likely to get a
quality education," Mr. Fattah said.

Finding yet another play on the title of the K-12 education law
President Bush signed last January, several GOP senators unveiled the
"No Child EVER Left Behind" initiative. It proposes to make permanent a
set of education tax credits, most of which are set to expire in
2010.

Not all of the action last week was at press conferences. The House
Ways and Means Committee passed, on a largely party-line vote, what it
calls the Back to School Tax Relief Act of 2002. It would allow
families of lower income levels to deduct $3,000 in K-12 educational
expenses, including tuition at private schools. A day earlier,
Democrats defeated a measure brought before the full House that would
have made permanent certain other education tax measures already in
law.

Meanwhile, the House Education and the Workforce Committee
overwhelmingly passed a measure that would offer student-loan
forgiveness to college graduates who opt for a career in teaching. In
fact, that one wins the truth-in-titling award: Its acronym, CLASS ACT,
is shorthand for "Canceling Loans to Allow School Systems to Attract
Classroom Teachers" Act.

But with everything else on Congress' plate—13 spending bills,
legislation to create a Department of Homeland Security, and
deliberations over a potential war in Iraq—delivering even a
bipartisan bill to the president's desk could be difficult. On all of
the legislation, the only votes that really count may well be those
lawmakers hope to generate in the polling booth.